Is the Australian Cricket Team on the Slide?

Well they say that all good things come to an end. Die hard supporters of the Australian Cricket team may have disputed those sentiments as they dominated world cricket for nearly 20 years. The cracks are starting to widen, as contenders start beating the door down.

The Aussies had infrastructure that left the rest of the world light years behind. But cricket academies are being built, good coaches hired and a professionalism taken now by all the top class nations. The depth was what made the difference as the Australian second 11 would have dominated any other nation when they were at their prime. Not so these days.

The Indians are emerging as the next powerhouse of cricket. They are starting to take a professional approach that will harden them into the best. Talent has never been the problem on the sub-continent just a lack of dogmatic resistance when the chips were down. They are learning and learning fast as they take on the approach the Aussies have used for years.

But what about the Aussie? Well their batting still seems very strong but under the microscope there are still problems. Hayden is a true champion but is getting on and there is a problem with a decent opening partner. Pointing and Hussey have been the most successful middle order in world cricket for the last few years but are both coming off poor summers. Clarke and Symonds appear to be the future but they appear at times to lack that mental toughness and seem far more comfortable telling us all how good they are. Gilchrist is now gone and Haddin is an excellent replacement but again untested at the highest level.

The bowling is where things are in dire trouble. Brett Lee is the obvious exception and is the best bowler in world cricket. In the past he went missing when the going got tough but that was the old Brett Lee. Then there is….well…let me think…then there is??? The rest are pretty average. We don't have a spinner of any note and the rest of the pace attack is pedestrian. Stuart Clarke was a perfect number 4 but Australia needs a number two and he is yet to produce that sort of form. He will terrorize average opponents but his medium paced up and down fluff isn't going to cut it against quality batsmen. Then it's left to Johnson and Bracken to round out a pretty sorrowful bunch.

So as a punter where does that leave you? Well the answer for me is simple. Bookies have long memories and they have bleed money as pro punters kept pumping the Aussies. It will take some time before the market corrects itself and you will continue to get value if you back against Australia.

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